27 September 2015

I have to admit that I never thought I would be researching the USMC, but over the last several days I have been doing exactly that. My son has played a couple of games of CoC with me recently and expressed interest in gaming the Solomon's campaign in the Pacific. This campaign was not covered in the basic CoC army lists nor has there been a player generated list for this period. There was one list for 1944-45 period but the USMC platoon organisation changed from a Type D to Type E in mid 1943, so this was not really accurate. There is an official list for the Japanese in the Far East in 1941-42 which contains the Type B organisation which will work for the Solomon's campaign. I have to admit it was quite interesting to read about this period and I think it will make for some excellent gaming.

Update: Here is the final version which has undergone extensive changes since first uploaded on September 16.Update 2: After review by Rich Clarke from TFL, the crew for a BAR was changed to one man rather then 2.

07 September 2015

I finally got around to taking some photos of some WWII armour I painted over the summer. They are all 1/72 in plastic except one vehicle which is resin. As campaigns for Chain of Command appear, more vehicles are always required, but my impetus for painting most of these AFV's was this blog post on Wargaming with Silver Whistle. The post describes a slight variation on Chain of Command with essentially all armour forces. I was immediately attracted as I felt it was a great way to tune up on the AFV rules in CoC and to paint some vehicles that I would not usually need. It is well worth looking at this blog just for the terrain which is really the best I have seen. It was a struggle to find some of the vehicles in 1/72 but I did manage.

First up is a couple of Panthers from Armourfast. Two in a box, so quite cheap.

The vehicles are somewhat flimsy and under detailed but they are quite reasonable for wargaming and more importantly they are to scale.

The stowage is added and is from Value Gear an excellent supplier of 1/72 resins extras.

Next up is a couple of Tiger 1's, these are from Italeri and are their new rapid line for wargamers.

They really are quite excellent and easily match PSC in quality.

They also come with decals and I think may work out to be a little cheaper then PSC.

This Humber Mk II Armoured car was a little tough to find in 1/72.

This is a Hasegawa Model, I usually stay away from Modeler's Models as there are too many pieces but this was OK and came out quite nicely. Again supplied with decals which is a plus.

Another Italeri Model, a Sd.Kfz 234 Puma.

This model was not sold as a fast build, but did have a fast build option. I am really quite impressed with Italeri. They have some very nice models which are well detailed and supplied with nice decals.

Here is a PSC Sd.Kfz 250/1. This is also a real quality kit with 3 models.

There are options to build the /1, 7, 9, 10 and 11 versions. really quite impressive.

Also from PSC is a Marder, another excellent kit.

Options to build a Panzer 38 and either the Sd.Kfz 138 or 139 versions of the Marder. Troops are included.

This little chap was the real challenge. The Silver Whistle had listed a Tetrach Light Tank in the British OB.

I finally found a resin Locust M22 from Planet Models. Nice little model, expensive but I am happy I added it.

Tiny little tank, transported by glider. Here it is next to a PSC Firefly and it is indeed to scale.